Perhaps the BEST B1G Forum anywhere, here at College Football Fan Site, CFB51!!!

I may be wrong, but I believe that The Big Ten Academic Alliance provides more money to the Universities than the TV Money provides.  I can't see the B1G bringing any school in that might dilute the academics since all schools of the B1G share in the BTAA.

That's really not how it works. They don't share money. They share resources.

Really miss having The UC in the CIC.

True, if the northern cities are losing population to their own suburbs, then they aren't really losing population other than in a very technical, statistical manner.

But what you're describing is zero net growth.  That's bad.

ND is under zero pressure and is in the driver's seat, considering any conference would love to have them.

Unless they really want to be in the B1G (which does not seem to be the case), they would be foolish to lock themselves into anything until the long-term CFB landscape is more clear.

I agree, and the only chance ND has of feeling any type of squeeze or sense of urgency is if they have an elite period in the 12-team playoff format and are repeatedly left out of the top 4 seeds.
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That MIGHT be a big-enough itch in their craw, but I doubt it.

True.
I may be thinking of UVA & UNC to the B1G as an act of keeping them out of the SEC, which would strengthen the SEC's academics.  

ND is under zero pressure and is in the driver's seat, considering any conference would love to have them.

Unless they really want to be in the B1G (which does not seem to be the case), they would be foolish to lock themselves into anything until the long-term CFB landscape is more clear.

I'm not sure that's true.  As conferences expand....so will their conference schedules.  At 16 teams, assuming two divisions, you'll have seven games dedicated to your own division.  And assuming that schools will want to see cross division opponents more than once every four years....you're looking at probably another three there.  As conferences expand, so will their conference schedules.  That puts pressure on independents like ND who piece their schedules together.  If/when expansion continues....ND is going to find it harder and harder to stay unaffiliated.....because once conference schedules hit 10 games.....there are going to be fewer and fewer teams willing to play them.

Not many schools are going to want to give up one of their two likely wins against the G5.....or in the SECs case.....the FCS.

Virginia and UNC would really beef up Big Ten Lacrosse.

They would definitely overtake the ACC as the top dog at that point, leaving them with only Duke, Cuse and ND (which is of course still pretty good).

I'm sure this will be factored heavily into their decision.

To expand on this since you are all on the edge of your seat with bated breath, there are only 8 teams to win more than one NC in the NCAA Tournament era (1971-present). So those would be the 8 "Helmets" of College Lacrosse. They are:

• Syracuse - 10 (14 overall)
• J Hopkins - 9 (36 overall)
• Virginia - 7 (8 overall)
• Princeton - 6 (14 overall)
• N Carolina - 5 
• Maryland - 3 (10 overall)
• Cornell - 3 (4 overall)
• Duke - 3

So set aside the two Ivys, and you have Cuse and Hopkins as the two "Uber Helmets," plus the old guard ACC quartet of Maryland, Virginia, N Carolina and Duke as the run of the mill "Helmets."

So if the Big Ten poached UNC and Virginia, then they would have one Uber Helmet, and 3 more Helmets.

The ACC would have 1 Uber Helmet as well, but only 1 regular Helmet, each of which would be the "worst" in their respective category. Now they will tout that they have more "Helmets per capita" and they will argue that their non-helmet (Notre Dame) is by far the best team in the Midwest, and they would point out that they don't have any hilariously bad teams like the Wolverines... and while all this would be true, the reality would be that we picked them clean.

Virginia won the last two NCs, Fwiw.

Interesting that UChicago is part of this.

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